


Caraphernelia

by thatscalledyes



Category: Pierce the Veil
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-02
Updated: 2014-03-26
Packaged: 2017-12-17 11:49:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/867193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatscalledyes/pseuds/thatscalledyes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Grace and her friend Riley were offered the biggest opportunity they would ever receive for two girls living on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Something like this doesn't happen to you every day when you live on an island full of retired, old people.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Uno

When you work at Old Navy on a place such as Cape Cod, Massachusetts, you’re not going to meet many interesting people. Sure, there may be the one or two people who decide to stop your whole day just to tell you their life story while you ring up their items, but other than that, it’s not a very exciting place to live.

It was just another snowy day at work and Grace was just finishing up her shift for the day. The store appeared to be getting much quieter—probably due to the snow outside—and she hoped they would let her off early today.

As she stood at the register, quickly but secretively texting her friend Riley, a girl with beautiful long black hair rolled a shopping cart full of clothes up to her register. Grace’s eyes practically popped out of her head at the sight of how many of the same t-shirts this girl was buying.

“Who needs that many t-shirts?” Grace said out loud. When she looked up, the girl was staring at her. “Oh, I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to say that aloud.”

The girl’s facial expression softened and she laughed. “Yeah, that’s the fun part about my job. I get to see the reaction on people’s faces when I arrive at the register with mass amounts of clothing.”

“What is all this for?” Grace asked, beginning to ring up the items.

“A music video we’re shooting.” The girl said.

“Oh. What band?” Grace asked.

“You probably wouldn’t know them,” The girl said, judging by appearances. “But Pierce The Veil.”

Grace’s jaw and the shirt she was holding dropped onto the counter simultaneously. “My friend and I love that band!” Grace exclaimed.

“Really?” The girl sounded surprised. “You don’t look like the type of girl who would listen to that kind of music.”

Grace rolled her eyes. “I get that a lot.” She continued to ring up the items while the girl in front of her texted away on her fancy iPhone. “Okay, that will be—”

“You know,” The girl cut Grace’s sentence off. “We appear to be a few people short. How would you and your friend like to be in the music video?”

“Seriously?” Grace smiled widely. “Yeah, we’d love to! We’ll have to get permission from our parents first but—”

“Great! Here’s my card. My cell number, Facebook, and Twitter account information is all on there. Give me a call when you get an answer from your parents.”

Grace looked down at the cream colored card in her hands.

_Melanie Gervais._  
737-223-0909  
Facebook: Melanie Gervais  
Twitter: @MelanieG 

Grace looked at her phone and saw her shift was just about up. She closed down her register and went to grab her bag from the back room.

When she got into her car, she couldn’t wait to call Riley. She dialed her friend’s number and pressed the phone to her ear, waiting for her friend’s voice to come on.

_“Hello?”_

“Riley? You’re never going to guess what happened to me at work today!” Grace giggled with excitement.

_“Um, yeah I have no idea. What? Tell me!”_

“This girl came in and had a shopping cart full of clothes. When I asked her what it was all for, she told me it was for a music video. So I asked her what band and she said Pierce The Veil. Then, as I’m ringing up all her stuff, she randomly asked me if we wanted to be in the music video!”

_“Wait. Both of us?!”_

“Yeah, that’s what’s so great about this!”

Riley let out a fan girl shriek and Grace had to hold the phone away from her ear because of how loud it was. In the background, she could hear Riley’s mom and sister.

 _“Riley, please!”_ Her mother begged. _“If you’re going to scream like that, go to your room. I gave you your own room for a reason.”_

 _“What’s she screaming about?”_ Riley’s sister asked.

 _“Bands, no doubt.”_ Her mother confirmed.

Riley breathed heavily into the phone as she tried to calm her inner fan girl. _“This is so great, like oh my god. Help! My feels!”_

Grace laughed. “I have her number here and everything. If your mom says yes, you should come over tomorrow and we can call her together!”

Riley agreed and told Grace she would see her tomorrow. On her way home, Grace blasted the Collide With The Sky CD Riley had made for her and dreamed about the day they would finally meet the guys.


	2. Dos

"Can you believe this is happening right now?" Riley gushed as she turned up the music, filling the car with Pierce The Veil's music.

Grace laughed and shook her head. "Our parents barely let us leave the Cape for anything. I can't believe they let us go to be in a music video!"

"Well," Riley sighed. "It took me a lot of begging, pleading, and negotiating."

"Same." Grace replied, taking a turn onto another ramp that would lead them off the highway and towards the building where the music video was being shot.

When they arrived, the two girls got out of the car and walked into the big building together. There were so many people all running around trying to get things done. Grace looked around for any sight of Melanie and Riley just looked around to see if she could find Jaime.

"Melanie! There you are!" Grace called out when she saw Melanie's black hair all tied up in a high ponytail.

"You made it!" Melanie exclaimed and to Grace's surprise, pulled her into a hug. "I'm going to need you to help me with the outfits and all the clothes. Oh, and you must be Riley." Melanie noted.

Riley nodded and smiled. "Yeah, I--"

"You're a dancer, right?" Melanie was already pushing Riley in another direction.

Riley tried to look back at Grace "Yeah, I--"

"Good. Go over there with the others and start stretching." Melanie shooed Riley over to the corner with the other dancers.

With all the commotion, Grace got trapped in a sea of people and lost Melanie and Riley. She was all alone and didn't know what to do. She began searching around for somewhere that looked like it was the fashion department of the whole shebang but with no such luck.

She tried to text Riley but she wasn't answering. She was about to send Riley the fourth text of the night when she ran into someone. As graceful as Grace was, she ended up tripping over a wire on the floor and landed right on her back.

"Hey, are you alright?" A strong pair of arms lifted her up off the floor. When she looked up, she was looking right into the eyes of Vic Fuentes.

"Y-Yeah, I..." She couldn't speak. The way his brown locks framed his face sent her mind reeling.

"Are you lost?" Vic asked. She nodded and tried to explain she was looking for Melanie. "I'll take you to Melanie. I'm sure she's going crazy looking for you."

Grace granted him a small smile as he led her through racks of clothes and flustered people. After a few minutes, they finally came across Melanie.

"There you are!" Melanie ran over to them. "I've been looking all over for you."

"Sorry... I got lost in a crowd of people." Grace looked down at the floor. "Vic helped me though."

Melanie gave each of them a half smile. "Good ol' Vic, always helping people out. Well. Since Vic was able to help you out, could you help him out?"

Grace nodded eagerly. Any chance to spend more time with Vic was a chance she wanted to take advantage of.

"Take these." Melanie handed her a bunch of clothes. "Go through them and decide what goes best with what and what looks best on him."

Grace looked at Vic who smiled and led her off to their dressing room. Not only was she about to help dress Vic Fuentes, but she was about to meet the rest of Pierce The Veil.


	3. Tres

At first it was awkward walking into a dressing room with three other guys, including Vic. Grace was just a small red headed girl with a love for the band. She'd dreamed of what it would be like to hang out with them in her dressing room but now that it was actually happening, she felt admittedly a little nervous.

"Guys, this is Grace. Melanie is having her help us with our wardrobe." Vic introduced Grace to Mike, Tony and Jaime. "Well," Vic corrected himself. "She's helping me. You guys can fend for yourselves."

Grace giggled at Vic's remark and spread the clothes out on the couch to get a better look at everything. She examined each piece very carefully. She wanted to make sure Vic looked perfect for this music video. She wasn't going to have it any other way.

After picking out which clothes looked best together, she gathered up the other garments to bring back to Melanie. But Grace, being nervous and a little clumsy, tripped over someone's shoe and almost face planted into the floor. Yet again, a strong pair of arms was there to help her. This time, they caught her in mid fall.

She looked up at Vic's smiling face. "You alright?"

She could feel her face begin to heat up. Vic Fuentes was holding her in his godly arms. "Y-Yeah, I'm fine." She brushed off the accident. "I'm going to bring these back to Melanie. I left your clothes on the couch."

"Awesome!" Vic exclaimed and went over to the couch where Grace had left his clothes.

Grace reached the door and peeked back just in time to see Vic's arm muscles flex as he swiftly removed the shirt he was wearing and changed it with the new one. Grace could hear the clanking metal of his belt as he began to unbuckle it but decided to leave before he stripped any further.

Grace maneuvered her way through the bustling people to find Melanie and ask her where she should put the extra clothes. On her search, she bumped into Riley again.

"There you are! I've been looking for you!" Riley exclaimed. "The dance is so easy. I could do it in my sleep." Riley boasted. "Where have you been?"

A smile crept across Grace's face as she thought of Vic shirtless and everything that had happened before that. "Well, I ran into Vic and--"

"Did you see Jaime?!" Riley shouted.

Grace covered Riley's mouth with her free hand to keep her friend from shouting again. Grace knew how Riley could get when it came to a certain attractive famous Mexican man in a band. "Yes, I saw Jaime." She half whispered.

Riley squeezed her eyes shut and jumped around a little, her blonde ponytail swinging around behind her.

"Calm down, would you?" Grace scolded.

Riley took a few deep breaths as she tried to tame her inner fan-girl. "I'm sorry. You know how I feel about Jaime."

"Oh, I know." Grace rolled her eyes playfully.

Suddenly, everyone started to hush and Grace looked over to see Jaime, Tony, Mike and Vic all strolling out to where the instruments were set up. Grace looked Vic up and down. She had to admit, he looked more fabulous than he ever had before. She silently applauded her work.

"There's Jaime!" Riley squealed.

Jaime must've heard Riley say his name for he looked over at the two girls and gave them a charming smile. Riley felt like she might faint. She absolutely loved everything about Jaime. She loved his hair, his face, his eyes, his smile, his personality, everything.

"I'm going to find Melanie." Grace leaned over to tell Riley. "I suggest you go find your dance crew. I don't want you getting into trouble." Riley agreed and walked off to find the other dancers.

It was a hassle trying to find Melanie but eventually Grace ran into her. "Finally, I found you." Grace said, exasperated.

"Sorry... I've been running around like a mad woman trying to get everything set up." Melanie apologized. "Vic looks great though!" She enthused. Grace smiled at the compliment. "Well, I think they're going to start shooting. You want to come watch with me?" Melanie offered.

Grace grinned widely. "Of course! I would love that!" Grace began to get the feeling that Melanie was starting to really like her. This would be good. She was going to need those ties to the band if she wanted to get closer to Vic.


	4. Cuatro

Their lives seemed to go back to normal after the music video ordeal was over. Grace went back to working at Old Navy and hadn't spoken to Melanie since. It had been almost a week since the music video. Grace missed Vic. She had only been with him for a short amount of time but she already missed him. He had been so sweet to her and she missed that.

Riley wasn't really taking her departure from Jaime very well either. Riley had been spending more hours on the internet than usual searching for their next concert or the closest city they would be in next. You could say Riley was a little obsessed.

Aside from working at Old Navy close to four days a week, Grace was also a nanny/babysitter for a few families her mom knew. Grace loved kids. She found their innocence comforting and their behaviors entertaining.

When she went home that day, her mom was in the kitchen on the phone and smiling really widely. Grace was a little skeptical as to why her mother was so happy.

"Great! I'll tell her. She just got home." Her mother said into the phone and then hung up. She turned to Grace and gave her a big hug.

"Nice to see you too, Mom." She returned the hug, still wondering what was going on.

"I got you another nanny job!" Her mother exclaimed.

Grace was excited but also stressed. Another nanny job meant more money which Grace could always use but Riley had convinced her to audition for their school's spring musical which meant she was going to need to be committed to that as well as working at Old Navy too. Grace felt like she had so much on her plate.

"For who?" She asked, twirling a piece of her red hair around her finger.

"A new family that moved in just down the street. The mother sounded really nice over the phone. She said the kids are wonderful. There's one girl who I think is around five or six and the boy is three. It should be fun!" Her mother was always optimistic about Grace's many jobs.

"When do I start?" Grace wondered.

"They were hoping you could start tomorrow. Is that okay?" Her mom asked.

Grace thought for a minute to make sure she had nothing going on tomorrow and agreed. She was always excited and a little nervous to start a new job.

****

"Grace, thank you so much for doing this for us. We were desperate." Mrs. Romero, the mother of the two kids granted Grace a relieved smile.

"It was no problem, Mrs. Romero." Grace smiled back. She waved goodbye to her as she walked out the door and turned back to the kids, resting her hands on her hips. "So, what do you guys like to do to have fun?" She asked and immediately the little girl, Nina, grabbed Grace's hand and led her up the stairs to her room.

Nina played with Grace for almost the whole time Grace was there and she was glad that Nina was growing to like her a lot. It meant the mother would most likely bring her back the next time she needed someone to watch after her kids.

"I'm home!" Grace heard the mother's familiar Spanish accent from downstairs.

Nina jumped up from the floor and scurried off down the stairs. Grace giggled to herself as she followed the excited Nina down the stairs.

"Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!" She tugged on the hem of her mother's dress. "Can Grace come to my birthday party? Please, please, please?"

"Uh," Mrs. Romero looked from Nina to Grace. "Would you like to, Grace? Her birthday party is going to be tomorrow afternoon if you would like to come."

"Please, please please, Grace?" Nina hugged Grace's leg tightly.

Grace giggled again at how adorable Nina was. "Of course I would, Nina!" She exclaimed.

Nina smiled and jumped up and down. "Yay!"

"It's just going to be a couple of Nina's friends from the neighborhood and a few of our family members. Nothing too huge. Thank you so much again for watching after them tonight and as you can see, Nina is very excited to have you come tomorrow." Mrs. Romero said.

"I'm excited to be there!" Grace reassured.

Grace just hoped it wouldn't be awkward. Grace was good at socializing and talking with people but she just hoped Nina didn't have any really cute cousins.


	5. Cinco

The Romero's yard looked adorably decorated for Nina's birthday party. There were pink streamers draped over the tree branches and hanging off the backyard fence. They had a picnic table and a few plastic tables and chairs scattered around the yard for people to sit at. Barbie balloons were tied to the mailbox outside.

Grace made her way up the driveway to the front door with a small present wrapped in baby blue paper in her hands. She tied it off with a nice little pink bow.

Grace knocked on the door and Mrs. Romero came bustling forward. "Oh, Grace! It's so nice to see you!" Mrs. Romero exclaimed. "Come out to the backyard! Nina will be so happy to see you."

Mrs. Romero guided Grace through the house to the back sliding glass door and out to the porch. To the right of them, there was a long table with presents of all sizes strewn across it. Grace placed her present down on an empty spot on the table and looked around at the decorated backyard.

"Grace!" Nina ran at her and grabbed onto her legs. "You came!"

Grace smiled down at the little girl. "Of course! I couldn't miss your big sixth birthday party!"

Nina's friends started calling to her and she ran off to join them on the swings. Grace was feeling pretty good about today. Something was telling her that it would be a good party.

"Oh, I have to go help Mike in the kitchen." Mrs. Romero remembered. Mike was Mrs. Romero's husband, Mr. Romero. "Feel free to eat and mingle and just enjoy yourself, okay Grace?"

Grace nodded and watched the slightly overweight Mexican woman waddle away into the house. She heard a joyful scream and looked over to watch Nina playing with her friends. Grace was just happy that Nina was having such a great birthday party already.

She decided to go over to one of the plastic tables and sit down to watch the kids play. After a few minutes, Mr. Romero came outside and sat with her.

"So you're Grace." He said, sitting down. "It's nice to finally meet you."

Mr. Romero always worked nights and so Grace had never been given the opportunity to officially meet him. Mrs. Romero talked about him all the time but Grace had never actually met him before.

Grace heard the glass sliding door close behind her and she looked back in the direction of the sound to see the last person she ever expected to see. Walking over to her and Mr. Romero was Vic Fuentes.

"Vic!" Mr. Romero bellowed from where he sat. Vic walked over and stood by him. "Grace, this is my nephew, Vic." Mr. Romero introduced them to each other.

Grace could see that twinkle in Vic's eye. He knew he had seen her before somewhere. He remembered her.

"Um, tía needs you in the kitchen." Vic said quickly.

"Well, I'll see you later, Grace. Victor, keep the girl company." Mr. Romero ordered and then hustled to the kitchen. He knew Mrs. Romero didn't like to be kept waiting.

"Grace?" Vic sat down in the plastic chair Mr. Romero had just been sitting in. "From the music video a couple weeks ago?"

Grace nodded. "Yeah, that would be me."

"What are you doing here?" Vic asked, scooting his chair a little closer to hers.

Grace noticed the small gesture and felt her heart racing. "I was just about to ask you the same thing."

Vic laughed. "Well, it's my cousin Nina's sixth birthday party. I couldn't miss it."

Grace nodded. "I babysit Nina and Felix. I actually live right next door. Right over there." Grace pointed to her house on the other side of the fence.

Vic placed his hand on the table. "Well, I'm glad you're here. I'm assuming Nina demanded you come?" Vic chuckled slightly. "I know how Nina can be."

Grace laughed slightly, agreeing with him. "You got that right."

"Can I get you anything? Like a soda or something?" Vic offered. "I was going to go get myself something anyway."

Grace twirled her red hair around her finger, trying to look flirty. "Yeah, sure. Thanks." She smiled at him and watched him walk away. Her hunch was right. It was going to be a good day.


	6. Seis

Now that Vic was gone, Grace was back to her usual routine. Go to school, go home, go to work, go home, do homework, go to sleep, repeat. She liked her routine schedule. She found comfort in it. But she missed Vic. She missed his smile, his laugh, his presence near her.

Grace was on her way home from work one day when she got a call from Melanie. Melanie was the last person she ever expected to hear from. How Grace even got Melanie to become her friend was still a mystery.

"Grace!" Melanie's chirpy voice cut through the receiver. "What are you up to?"

That was an odd question. Melanie was usually busy with band-related problems. She never had time to just talk on the phone casually with someone.

"Um, I'm driving home from work." Grace pulled up and stopped at a red light.

"Look, I need you to do me a favor."

Here came the catch. Grace knew that there would be something Melanie needed from her. It wasn't every day that a young woman in her mid twenties that worked for a famous band just called an average eighteen year old girl to chat.

Grace listened for Melanie to continue as the light turned green. "I need you to help me with merch and wardrobe for the boys. You did such a great job at the music video shoot and I loved your work. I want you to come work for me full time. You can help design merch for us and help the boys with their wardrobe because, let's be real here, they're men and they can't dress themselves properly."

Grace was astonished. She never thought an opportunity like this would arise from a simple meeting with Melanie at Old Navy a few weeks back. "Melanie, I'm going to have to talk to my parents about this. I'm still in school. I can't just drop out of high school out of the blue."

"You don't have to worry about the school thing." Melanie said. "I already got that covered. And I already talked to your parents. They think it's a wonderful opportunity for you!" Melanie sounded so excited and Grace hated to let her down. It did sound like a great opportunity and she wanted to be a part of it. But there would be something missing and she had to say something.

"I'll only do it if Riley can come along. You know how much she loves the band, Melanie. And if she found out I went off to work for Pierce The Veil without her, she'd be crushed."

Grace could tell Melanie was thinking by the silence that passed between them. She hated to throw something like that at Melanie but it would be the only way she could accept the job without feeling guilty.

"Alright," Melanie finally said after about a minute of silence. "I'll let her sell merch with you. You two can be Pierce The Veil's new official merch girls. Sound good?"

Grace grinned as she pulled her car into her driveway. "Perfect." She said.

Melanie had explained after that she arranged for Vic and Jaime to pick up the girls in the next few days and bring them down to LA. Grace couldn't wait to surprise Riley. She knew how much Riley wanted to start a different life somewhere else. This was to be the start of something new.


End file.
